No More Reason for Iran to Keep to JCOPA: Senior Diplomat

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi says Europe’s inaction leaves Iran with no choice but to stop a one-way commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has demonstrated “strategic patience” over the past year in the face of the US illegal and unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Araqchi said on Tuesday.

He made the remarks in a meeting with State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Lukas Parizek, held in Tehran.

The Iranian diplomat also lambasted the European states for procrastinating when it comes to fulfillment of the JCPOA undertakings, noting, “Sadly, the balance between the Islamic Republic of Iran’s obligations and rights under the JCPOA has been upset.”

“Considering the European side’s pledges that have gone unfilled, there remains no reason for one-way implementation of commitments by Iran,” he underlined.

“Iran, however, has kept the window of diplomacy open by gradually scaling down its commitments,” Araqchi added.

For his part, the Slovak diplomat expressed Bratislava’s support for the JCPOA, and hoped that coming into service of the INSTEX- a European payment channel for trade with Iran- would help the EU to preserve and strengthen trade ties with Iran.

On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA, a 159-page nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) came into force in January 2016.

Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.

However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments under JCPOA on May 8, 2019.

Iran has also set a 60-day deadline for the remaining JCPOA parties to fulfill their undertakings.

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